If the material of the gasket begins to harden so much that it doesn’t create a good seal.

If the refrigeration unit keeps coming on and shutting off, odds are it’s having a hard time keeping temp. There are a lot of things that could be at play here, but the gasket is one of the easiest, quickest, and cheapest ways to begin narrowing down where the issue may be.

If you can feel cool air leaking around the gasket when the door is closed.

If you begin to see condensation build-up around the gasket seal.

New Gaskets With Gaps – Is It Defective?

When gaskets arrive at your door, it’ll likely be twisted and contorted in a way that makes it look almost impossible to install. In fact, if you try to install it without working out the kinks, you’ll notice small gaps that are letting cold air seep through.

To work out the kinks, it’s best to soak any new gasket in hot water for 30 minutes before trying to install it. If the kinks don’t come out, you can also try using other methods to heat up the gasket a bit. At home, we’d recommend using a hair dryer or even throwing it in the dryer for 10 minutes, but in the commercial kitchen, you could alternatively bring water to a slow boil, turn it down to a simmer, and put the gasket in the water for 10 minutes. Once heated, lay it on a flat surface and stretch the gasket into the shape it needs to be to fit the equipment it is being installed on.

Do you have a prep table or countertop that needs a new cutting surface? We got you covered. Tundra offers are variety of custom cutting boards for bars, restaurants, large institutions, food trucks, catering companies, and everyone in between.

Just grab your tape measure, send us the dimensions, and we’ll take care of the rest!

Bringing in the summer with new ice cream equipment, supplies, and dispensers helps keep your customers chill and your sales hot, especially when you’re using commercial products that help save you time and money over time. Our Ice Cream Specialty Shop is perfect for helping to bring everything together, including blenders for yummy smoothie concoctions and dipper wells to help keep utensils clean. Here are just a couple of our top selling items for ice cream enthusiasts.

Ice Cream Dishers

At the top of our list are ice cream dishers (or is it called a scoop). These simple little tools are an ice cream essential in the home and business. Without these, scooping up that ice cream would be a bit harder and wouldn’t give those scoops their signature shape – who wants to see lop-sided ice cream on top of their cone? Ranging from $1-$20, make sure to get the size that is perfect for your needs.

Hot Fudge Dispensers

If you weren’t craving an ice cream sundae before you got to this point, I bet you will after I tell you that our second favorite ice cream parlor must is a hot fudge dispenser. Capable of maintaining a constant temperature without scorching the chocolate, these dispensers are perfect for helping to keep the flow in the kitchen. Prices range from $150-$750, and the most important decision when picking these products out is the capacity they need to hold to benefit your business best.

Ice Cream Molds

Want to get into the business of selling your own popsicles or want to give your ice cream a specialty look, then you’ll definitely need these ice cream molds. They’re easy to use and typically come with wooden sticks to get you started as soon as they arrive. Prices range from $20-$200, which is mainly based on how much production you’re planning on doing.

Dipper Wells

Dipper wells are handy-helpers on the back line as they help to keep utensils clean for continual use. They run a constant flow of water over the utensils that reside in them, which ensures bacterial growth is washed away and other harmful allergens. There’s a wide price variety with dipper wells ($50-$1,000), but again, it’s based on the capacity the item needs to be to properly maintain your business.

Ice Cream Drink Mixers

Depending on if you’re looking to serve frozen drink concoctions on a minute-by-minute basis, or just a few a day, ice cream drink mixers are a great way to keep serving up the very best of ice cream favorites. Ranging in price from $100 to $1,000, the perfect drink mixer for you is going to be deciding on the number of spindles, where the placement of the machine will be, and the speed the machine needs to provide to keep you in business.

Update International Cap CatcherSale Price: $25.29 How could you possibly improve upon the delight of opening a cold beer on a hot day? By opening a cold beer and then watching the cap fall effortlessly into this cap catcher. Sublime.

Casters are used primarily in the industrial and food service world, we’ve found that there are many small and big uses for them in the home too. Of course a caster that is able to hold up to 300 pounds under a trash can may be a bit excessive (or maybe not, I’m not judging), there are other uses for a mighty caster like this in your home.

For a bit of fun, we pulled this list together of how you can use different casters around your house and business.

1. Bins and Cans

Ever bring the trash can over to the sink to throw out peels as you shred your vegetables? How about when the recycle bin or trashcan is overstuffed, and it’s best to bring it out to the dumpster to help unload it? Casters are perfect on the bottom of bins and trashcans to make them more portable in the kitchen.

2. Islands and Butcher Blocks

For a more industrial look in the kitchen, add casters to the bottom of your butcher block or island. This also helps with moving them out of the way when more space is needed or different configuration is needed when guests come over.

3. Beds

Keeping with the industrial look, adding casters to your beds will help keep the industrial motif going. Casters attached to your bed also help move it out of the way for easy cleaning underneath, or for those of you lucky enough to have large doors to the outside, a push of the bed to the outdoors can create quite an intimate occasion – not even kidding, this is a thing!

4. Coffee Tables

Ever have an urge to break-dance in the living room or just need more room for crafting? When the coffee table is on casters, you can roll it away for extra space anytime!

6. For the Pets

Try converting an old suitcase into a dog bed, then place casters on the bottom so that the bed can be wheeled to the living room, outdoors, or by mans-best-friend at night. You can also use as an old crate on casters as an upcycled pet feeder like our friend Summerofseventy did.

To see other fun ideas on DIY caster projects around the home, catch us on Pinterest.

Parts diagrams help you know exactly what parts you need to make repairs on common kitchen appliances. Similar to the diagram above, we have hundreds of free diagrams for you to be able to find the right parts needed for your food service equipment. The diagrams are broken down by brands and appliance type (salad spinner, mixer, slicers, glasswashers, blending stations, etc.).

Once you find the diagram for the piece you’re trying to repair, all you have to do is match the number up with the list of parts below the diagram, and you’ll be on your way to quick do-it-yourself (DIY) repairs that helps keep money in your pocket. Don’t feel comfortable making those repairs on your own? Give our team a call at 888-388-6372 or use the Live Chat function on our main site to be connected with our customer service team.

We have a team full of knowledge when it comes to the food service industry. From former Chefs and Servers to Repair Technicians and Food Service Veterans, let our team help you do-it-together (DIT).

Infrared burners are found in a wide range of commercial restaurant equipment, including salamanders, char grillers, broilers and fryers. These types of burners are most commonly used to sear, brown, and caramelize food products. Any chef or serious cook knows that the best way to prepare a juicy, succulent steak is to sear the outside as quickly as possible to keep the juices and moisture locked inside.

Infrared burners are mostly recognized for their ability to bring on the Maillard reaction (the reaction of sugars with aminio acids during the cooking process that turns meat brown and gives it flavor and aroma, i.e. “the flavor reaction”). Some units are able to reach sustained temperatures of beyond 2,100⁰ F and can heat up to 600⁰ F in less than 4 minutes. That’s hot enough to melt some metals, and definitely hot enough to put a little brown on a pork roast.

But most probably already know that infrared burners can get extremely hot, extremely quick. So, what else do they do that separates them from other types of burners? That’s a burning question, indeed.

Infrared burners produce more radiant heat.

Cooking results with infrared technology differ from those produced by an open gas burner or an electric heating element, mainly because they produce more radiant heat – the same type of heat energy that the sun produces. Rather than transferring heat through the air (convective heat transfer) or across a solid conductive object (conductive heat transfer), heat energy is transferred through heat waves onto the food product. This type of heat transfer is ideal for preparing a perfectly cooked steak.

Ever wondered why some people may leave the door of an oven slightly cracked when using the broiler portion? Many, like me, assume that this is done as a reminder to not burn whatever is under the broiler. Contrary to this belief though, the main reason the oven door is kept ajar is to maximize radiant heat energy by minimizing convective heat energy transfer. With the door kept open, hot air is allowed to escape and therefore does not circulate throughout the oven cavity as it normally would if the oven door was closed. This allows for whatever is being cooked to receive more radiant heat rather than convective heat.

So, why is radiant heat better than convective heat?

Well, radiant heat is not always better to use than convective heat, but in the case for cooking meats, it’s definitely best to maximize radiant heat. This is because convective heat tends to move moisture off of foods, unless whatever is being cooked has already been seared or browned.

Consider how a hand dryer or blow dryer works: these devices continuously move hot air across the surface of an object to remove moisture and eventually leave the object dry. They are using convective heat to create dryness.

With that said, common sense would suggest that cooking a steak using mostly convective heat or the “blower dryer” method is likely not the best idea around, that is, unless you like your steak dry. To avoid customers “yelping” about how leathery and chewy your steaks are, use more radiant heat. Equipment with infrared burners creates more intense radiant heat and is therefore able to cook meats without zapping their moisture.

Keeps heat evenly distributed.

Hot spots can be a problem with some cooking equipment, especially char grillers. Hot and cold spots occur because heat is not evenly distributed. This causes some portions of food to cook quicker than others and burn. Infrared char grillers are able to completely eliminate hot spots with a design that projects heat waves evenly and uniformly across the entire cooking surface.

Infrared burners are able to achieve even heat distribution through their design. Even radiant heat transfer occurs as heat from an atmospheric burner is absorbed then re-emitted across a perforated glass, metal, or ceramic plate, known as an emitter panel, onto the food product. Because heat is being emitted from a panel and not directly from a flame, char grillers and other equipment using infrared burners will give operators more usable space, helping to increase production.

A typical gas char griller will create a cooking surface with some spots being 40⁰ to 50⁰ F different from other areas; however, char grillers that use infrared technology only allow for 10⁰ to 20⁰ F of varying temperature differences across the entire, usable cooking space.

Increased energy efficiency.

Although cooking equipment using infrared burners is generally more expensive, they do use less energy, while also increasing production rates. They’re able to shave cook times by up to 50% and do so by using less than a 1/3 of amount gas.

Deep fat fryers that use infrared burners have been proven to improve their heating efficiency by roughly 80%. Traditional gas burners lose heat energy by heating the air between the burner and the heating plates that heat the oil; however, in the models of fryers with infrared burners, the burners are either in direct contact with the heating plates or very close which helps to minimize heat loss that occurs by heating the air.

Here in the U.S., Memorial Day is typically seen as the unofficial start of grilling season (though we must note—approvingly—that people are increasingly grilling year round). By late May, the weather is predictably warm (for the most part—Colorado is an exception) and backyards are in full bloom, so it just doesn’t seem right to cook meat and veggies in the kitchen! Whether you’re an home-based grillmaster or food service pro, you’re sure to find what you need at Tundra’s grilling specialty shop. Ready, set, grill!

May is a great time of year, because we know that summer is upon us, which means warmer months, plenty of poolside visits, and outdoor events. Of course, one of the best parts of the summer is all the new food that starts popping up on the menu, especially at concession stands! To help you get started with your concession business, here are a few of our favorite products to help get you through the summer and keep those customers coming back for more.

The first in our product line up for concession supplies brings us back to the basics with utility carts. Often underestimated, but often overly used once in the concession toolkit, utility carts help deliver product and supplies in areas that are sometimes hard to conquer with just any type of serving cart. Use these heavy-duty carts to give your business the extra helping hand it needs.

Oh, what would a great concession stand be without a cotton candy setup? The good news is that we have everything to help you get started today, including carts and stands, cotton candy machines, floss bubbles, floss sugar, and serving supplies.

And of course, there has to be popcorn too! With carts and stands, bulk popcorn kernels, oils and salts, poppers, serving supplies and the cleaning supplies to help wrap things up, we help make stocking up on the good stuff easy.

We wouldn’t say that you’d be showing off by keeping your nacho chips warmer than the competition, but your customers will definitely notice the difference and be begging for more of those toasty nacho chips!

And to finish off our concession supply list, let’s circle back to desserts – sno-cones to be exact! We’ve got everything you need to cool down customers, including syrups, shaved ice machines, carts and accessories. It may be warm in the coming months, but sno-cones will help you keep your cool.

Although catering season seems to always be in high growth, we see that during the holidays and the warmer months, catering sales definitely hit an all-time high. It’s the time of year that people would rather be catered too than spend hours in the kitchen, and when wedding bells are set to ring, there’s always a caterer needed. Our Catering & Buffet Specialty Shop offers a variety of products to keep you in high production and we’ve broken them up into these top categories.

A side partner to equipment, and often overlooked, serveware is what helps hold everything together in the catering line-up. From chafing dishes to simple salad bowls, serveware will be one of the places you’ll likely spend the most time.

At a catering event, not just any utensils will do, they have to show the splendor the event deserves. In our collection of serving utensils, you’ll find plenty of eye-pleasing products to help deliver your next event in style.

More often than not, a catered event doesn’t cook food up at the venue, which is where catering storage and transport equipment comes in handy. These products help keep food at the adequate serving temperature as it’s transported from one place to the next.